We played our eighteenth session of The Shattered Obelisk on Monday, February 26, 2024. Everyone was in attendance – the DM (me) and all three players. In that virtual kind of way that we have by playing on Roll20.
The group is five characters, though. I run the fighter (Simeon) as an NPC, because running a champion that way is very quick. And the artificer’s player (Syzoth) plays the rogue as well (Jake). We started with four, then picked up two henchmen about halfway through when Simeon got captured, then Nymia’s player lost both her main character and her henchman in a memorable disaster. Simeon was rescued, but the Nymia and the henchmen remained dead – with the player creating Killin the Paladin as a replacement.
We’re now into Chapter 7 of the adventure, and the characters are descending into the depths of the Underdark, looking for an old Mind Flayer stronghold, as well as the remaining kidnapped villagers.
The session began with a random encounter – a pair of troglodytes who were very excited as they’d summoned a Bar-Lgura. (or Bar-Igura, spellings are confused). They happily set the fiend on the party, one foolishly running alongside the demon as it rushed at the party. Which just meant that he was the first to die.
The stench of the remaining troglodyte did pose problems for Killin, who managed to roll a natural 1 on her Constitution save – then rerolled to get a natural 2. But even with disadvantage, the troglodyte didn’t have a high enough AC to withstand her divine smite. The entire combat was over in 2 rounds (10 minutes). The depths were obviously full of crazed demon-worshippers!
Why does no-one have Tongues?
The next encounter was with a side area to the main corridor, one of the three keyed encounter areas on the journey down. This one held a behir who wanted the party to drive the gricks out of the adjoining cave. There were two problems with this: the adjoining cave held grell, not gricks. And secondly, and more importantly, no-one in the party spoke Draconic. Nor did Vel’rali the sorcerer know the tongues spell.
One thing I do like about this adventure is that it has a lot of times where languages matter. Unfortunately, this is not the party that knows every language in the book.
The party did understand that the behir was trying speak with them rather than eat them, but that was as far as it went. With no way of communication, they left the cave peacefully and continued down the passageway.
When I first read this encounter, I thought the behir wanted the grell killed, not the gricks. Apparently, in the world of Wizards of the Coast, the grick cavern which is TWO MILES AWAY is adjoining. (And that’s more than two hours travel away as well).
The oversight on this adventure (editing and project lead) is lousy.
They speak Undercommon!
It was now time for another random encounter – this one with a group of quaggoths seeking a companion who had gone missing. This is a really lovely random encounter, as another encounter on the table is with the missing companion. (Sadly, my group didn’t encounter him).
But – in a rarity for this campaign – one of the characters spoke the same language as the quaggoths! Killin was able to not only reassure them that they’d not seen the missing quaggoth, but also promised to keep an eye out for him. In addition, the quaggoths warned the party about a dangerous cavern ahead, inhabited by gibbering mouthers.
That allowed the party to just bypass the cavern when they reached it a couple of hours later. Well, they probably would have bypassed it anyway – because there’s no reason to enter it but curiosity. In the Descent into the Depths of the Earth and Vault of the Drow, the party must pass through dangerous set locations. (They occasionally have a choice of which location to pass through). In this adventure, all three keyed locations on the journey down are side caverns and easily bypassed. At least the first one has something of interest to the players. The other two – and especially this one – are incredibly skippable.
At least each is short.
The Gates of Illithinoch
We now got to one of the most challenging parts of the adventure so far – me trying to pronounce Illithinoch. Which, as my players could tell you, was very amusing for them and frustrating for me.
One of the really amusing things throughout this dungeon was that the doors automatically open when looked at for 30 seconds or so. Which led, early in the piece, into some very wonderful moments as Jake the Rogue tried to check them for traps and to hear what was behind the doors only to have the doors open on him, revealing the party to whatever lived behind them! Eventually, the party realised what was going on and Jake would listen at the doors with his eyes closed. You’ve got to love these interactions!
The party were thus a little surprised when the great gates of Illithinoch opened before them to reveal a pair of mind flayer “welcomers”. The mind flayers, initially believing the party were cultists of the Obelisk, greeted them and asked whether they were here to worship or had brought shards for the masters. Killin was having nothing of it, and quickly provoked a fight.
Vel’rari rolled well for initiative and cast haste on Simeon, who had lost initiative. This was also the signal for Simeon to get caught in a mind blast and fail every single intelligence saving throw for the encounter – never getting to act. I amused the players by describing how Simeon finally recovered from the mind blast after the fight was done, only to get caught by the side-effects of haste stopping. They laughed.
Apart from that, the players did a very good job of splitting up so the mind flayers couldn’t catch more than one in any single mind blast. Three rounds (13 minutes) was how long the combat took, with the rogue’s sneak attacks from around the corner being very appreciated by everyone but the mind flayers.
No-one at Wizards of the Coast Uses Miniatures
Exploring southwards, they found a few living chambers and then a room holding a giant iron orrery – very cool – and two large slaadi. The slaadi tried to bully the party into leaving, but Killin was having none of that.
Which led to one of the worst encounters in the adventure. Where the party could happily sit back in the five-foot-wide corridors and snipe the slaadi… or the slaadi could approach and squeeze, thus taking disadvantage on all their attacks, and the players had advantage to hit them. The slaadi only had melee attacks.
(Jake opened the door, then retreated into the passageway).
The party won. They weren’t even threatened.
This is a company that sells miniatures and virtual tabletop maps. It has no comprehension of how its game works on a battle map.
Negotiation!
The party discovered a portal to another plane – from which the slaadi had apparently emerged – but wisely chose not to enter. Don’t go to another plane unless you know you have a way back!
A nearby lab was stocked with many memory crystals, revealing part of the history of this place, and some of the plans of the mind flayers. Syzoth identified the important crystals and was moderately disturbed by the contents.
Another room contained a group of psychic goblins looting the chamber (another planar rift was partially concealed behind an ill-constructed barricade). The party greeted them, they exchanged pleasantries, and then the party moved on.
See, not all interactions end in a combat!
Combat!
The final encounter of the night was in a large room with a lot of blocked lines-of-sight which was once a bedroom (of sorts) for mind flayers. However, the mind flayers had all devolved into nothics, although with mind blast abilities! (Poor Simeon!)
I had the nothics arrive as if they were entering Noah’s Ark, that is to say, two by two. The fight continued quite some time as a result. A full 21 minutes of real time or about 4 rounds. The reoccurring mind blasts, albeit only with a DC 12, were a pain to play through. (The various recharging abilities were also somewhat annoying to track).
The party were victorious by its end, though the fight was somewhat draining. An abandoned pod/bed contained a magical crystal that Vel’rali snaffled, but by then it was time for us to end the session. The exploration of the complex would continue next session.
For those interested, this session ran for about 2-1/2 hours. We schedule 3 hours, but typically spend the first half-hour just chatting. I’m expecting to do the bulk of the rest of Chapter 7 next session, although I’m not sure if we’ll finish it.
Until then!